Dr. Larry Pittman Goddard Blog

Egyptian Travel Blog  Left Tyler at 5:30 A.M. Thanksgiving Day and arrived here in Cairo Friday night at 8:30 p.m. It is their three-day Festival of Feast which means they all stay home and eat--which is great for me since now there is no traffic. They do a Black Friday kind of deal, but it is for grocery stores only. We are on the west bank of the Nile which is Giza and the other side of the Nile is Cairo, but the names are used both ways.  What I saw of the new Cairo Heliopolis is beautiful; Mubarak’s home is heavily secured; they haven't had a war since 1973 and that was with Israel. Everyone is formal and friendly and I'm looking for their soccer shirt--war almost broke out with one country and |Egypt over a soccer game recently so I think it would behoove me to wear their national team shirt. Will climb pyramids tomorrow (Giza) and of course the ever-present open market, medina, stinky sales market which you know I will be sanitizing my hands c...

Fun Facts about Ecuador:  I love their phrase: "tipo" which means "Oh, some time around then"  See you at 10 a.m. tipo! Transportation  ■Stop = yield. This is no joke. A friendly tap on the horn as you approach an intersection is about all the warning you’ll get from an approaching car. And following behind the car in front of you? That’s for suckers. Ecuadorians continually tailgate and pass the cars in front of them. We’ve even seen buses pass each other at night on 2-lane curvy mountain roads. No one wants to wait once they get in the car (before they get in the car, that’s another story!).  ■The “Ecuadorian Nanosecond” is the flash of time between the light turning green and the person behind you honking the horn.  ■Buses will stop for anyone on the side of the road that flags them down. In fact, the bus driver is joined by a guy who’s job is to stand at the door calling out the bus destination and looking for new riders.  ■The coun...